I struggle with this one but I think it's important none the less. A great game master needs to have a disciplined approach to preparing for a game, effective note-taking, understanding and applying rules, adjudication where the rules don't cover and all the rest. By remaining disciplined, the game master will consistently and reliably produce …
Category: game mastering advice
RPG’s are Fractals
noun noun: fractal; plural noun: fractals 1. a curve or geometric figure, each part of which has the same statistical character as the whole. Fractals are useful in modeling structures (such as eroded coastlines or snowflakes) in which similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales, and in describing partly random or chaotic phenomena such as crystal growth, …
Don’t Just Cut
Most of my game prep I do by hand with a pen and paper. I do sometimes write campaign histories or adventure location back stories with the computer. When I go back to revise my work, I cut a lot. Anything that I think doesn't fit gets cut and pasted into what I call my "orphan" …
Trust
Building and maintaining trust is important for a game master. If the players trust you to build a setting, an adventure, a scene that is going to have a satisfying pay off, then they might go along when they aren't sure where your hooks are taking them. If the players trust you then they may …
Concept First, Mechanism Second
The conceptual situation or encounter has primacy in the games I run. I describe the scene with no reference to mechanisms of the game what so ever. The players tell me what they want to do. If the character is a thief and they want to climb a garden wall and what I want the …
Evoking Curiosity In Players
Set up questions. Questions demand answers. Adventures lead to answers. An adventure location in one of my old campaigns. A dwarf is looking for some adventurers to rescue or recover the remains of his brother in law. The two of them were prospecting in an old mine when they were attacked by a pack of …
Learning/Teaching Game Mastering: Efficient Skill Acquisition
This is my way of response to a couple of posts by Noisms about whether or not game mastering can be taught. I agree in part with him. You have to put in the work. You can read them here here and here Let's start by saying very clearly: There are no short cuts. You have to …
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Grumpy Wizard 
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